Gray woke up; feeling something or someone leaning against his chest. He looked down to see Sasuke; still sound asleep; a small and warm smile had taken its place on his lips (he was wearing a black muscle shirt instead of being shirtless this time). Seeing this Gray smiled and looked out the window to see a blue sky; not a cloud in sight. It reminded him of a time when he was with Juvia. He and Juvia were sitting at the shore line of a beach after a long day of fun on the beach. Juvia had been by his side that whole time while he lied in the sun; getting a tan that no girl could resist. Something dragged him out of his memories back into reality - hearing and large intake and exhale of breath. He watched as Sasuke's eyes flickered to life and he started to wake up. Sasuke's hair was a mess; which made Gray chuckle slightly:
"Hey there sleeping beauty. Did ya sleep well?" He asked jokingly.
Sasuke nodded; not even paying any attention to the name Gray had called him.
Gray chuckled again:
"I can tell. I mean you'd even be able to tell because your hair's a mess."
Sasuke wave a hand at the ice mage:
"Ah shut up." He said with an almost non-existent voice; making Gray laugh even more:
"What? Can't take a joke there sleepy?"
Sasuke let out a small giggle:
"Quit calling me names ya big softy."
Gray couldn't stop himself from laughing:
"Softy? THAT'S what I'm reduced to? Softy?!"
Sasuke couldn't stop laughing either:
"Yup. That's what you are. You're a softy."
"And why am I a softy?"
"You're a softy because if you weren't you wouldn't allow me to sleep on your chest."
Gray's face turned a little red, but he was still laughing with Sasuke:
"Ah shut up. Don't make me call you what I called you before."
Sasuke's face turned a little red too, and he was still laughing with Gray:
"N-no, no I'm good."
"Take it back then or I'll start tickling you." Gray threatened.
"But you are a softy and you know it." Sasuke tried to say innocently, but couldn't because he was laughing so hard, and Gray didn't make anything better after because he started to tickle him until he took back the name:
"Take it back."
"N-no." Sasuke tried to say while laughing.
Gray continued to tickle Sasuke:
"C'mon Sasuke - take it back."
"O-okay, okay. Stop."
Gray stopped for a moment.
"I take it back. You're not a softy."
"Good. Thank you. Now was that really that-" Gray said before Sasuke cut him off.
"You're a mush-bucket." Sasuke said giggling.
Gray's face became even redder than before:
"W-wait w-what?"
"I'm kidding."
"You better be. I might've had to tickle you again if you hadn't been kidding."
The two laughed for a while before Gray glanced at the clock:
"Its 11:30 already?! Wow."
Sasuke looked at the clock as well:
"Oh yeah. So it is."
An evil plan popped into Gray's mind, and at the same time into Sasuke's mind:
"Hm...what if I were to just randomly pin him down and tickle him until he said he'd do anything to make me stop?" Gray thought.
"I wonder what would happen if I just did something unspeakably dirty or evil in his case that he has no choice but to stop me somehow? That's something I'd love to experiment with." Sasuke thought with an un-noticeable sly smirk.
Gray was quick enough to make the first move by pinning Sasuke down onto that bed and started to tickle him.
"G-Gray...hahaha...s-stop...p-please."
"Nope. Not gonna happen Sasuke."
Sasuke couldn't help but fall into Gray's little trap:
"S-stop please. I-I'll do anything." He said laughing.
Gray stopped:
"Anything?" he asked raising an eye brow at the gennin.
"Yes." The gennin answered; out of breath from laughing.
"Gatcha Sasuke." Gray thought as he pretended to think about what Sasuke could do to get him to stop tickling him:
"Hm. What could you do?" Gray said thinking aloud as he tapped his index finger against his chin; a sly smirk had taken its position on the ice mage's face.
Sasuke gulped:
"Anything in mind?"
"I'm thinkin' you're gonna have to take shirt off, but that's just for starters."
Sasuke's face turned to a deep shade of red in an instant:
"W-what?"
"Ya heard me. The shirt. Off."
Sasuke started to take his shirt off, but also started to fumble with it because his hands were shaking.
Gray noticed Sasuke's hands shaking and leaned down to kiss him and helped him take the muscle shirt off; only to be stopped when he felt a chill run down his spine; making him stop.
"What is it Gray?"
"Something doesn't feel right."
"What do you mean?"
Gray got off of Sasuke and walked over to the window and saw that there was no one outside anymore:
"What is going on?" Gray thought as he searched for something out of place.
Sasuke got up and walked over to the window to see what was wrong; his shirt now off:
"See anything yet?"
"Nope."
"Is that a good thing?"
"Nope."
Sasuke looked around outside and saw noting; not even a single person outside:
"The streets are never empty." Sasuke said; looking from shop to shop.
Gray looked at Sasuke:
"What?"
"The streets are never empty." Sasuke repeated; not even looking at him.
"I wonder what's wrong. Noting appears to be wrong, but it's just something in the air. I can't quite tell what it is exactly, but obviously it ain't good."
"Oh hey!" Sasuke said nudging Gray.
"What is it?"
"Look at the sky. Maybe that's what it was." Sasuke said pointing up to a black sky.
"That doesn't look to friendly. It actually is a little scary to be honest."
"Yeah."
A chill ran down Sasuke's back; causing him to shiver and wince a little; his seal wasn't in the best shape so it was pretty sensitive to pretty much everything.
Gray saw the seal twist slightly; making Sasuke wince even more:
"Whoa. What's up with Sasuke? He's never been like this as I've seen." Gray thought as he put an arm around his friend to help him stay standing.
"The pain keeps coming sooner and sooner. I don't know if I can keep up with this charade. I can't believe it's come down to this: me doubting myself. Wow." Sasuke thought as he started to feel ashamed of himself.
"Did you want me to go get your sensei?"
"No. I can handle this myself."
"Handle what? As far as I can see you're in serious pain. I don't like seeing you like this Sasuke. I wanna help you."
Sasuke sighed:
"Fine. Go get him. Just hurry."
"You got it." Gray said as he laid Sasuke down on his bed and ran out the door.
Sasuke sat up and looked out the window:
"What is going on out there?"
Gray was running as fast as he could go until he found Kakashi. He stopped in front of the jounin and tried to catch him breath:
"Kakashi...I...it's...important..." He said trying to tell Kakashi what was going on while also trying to catch him breath.
"What is it Gray? What's happened?"
"It's...Sasuke..." Gray said before he collapsed.
Kakashi caught him before his knees hit the ground:
"What's happened to Sasuke?" Kakashi asked; seeming just as worried for Sasuke as Gray was.
"It's...the seal." Gray answered as he started to catch his breath.
"C'mon." Kakashi said gesturing to his back.
"What? Where're we going?"
"Get on."
Gray climbed onto Kakashi's back, and the jounin disappeared and reappeared at his house:
"Grab that scroll for me please." The jounin instructed.
Gray nodded and did as he was told and grabbed the scroll Kakashi had pointed to:
"I got it."
"Okay." Kakashi said before they disappeared and reappeared in Sasuke's room; only to see that he was past out; lying on his stomach.
Gray got down from the jounin's back, handed the scroll to him, and walked over to Sasuke; knelt beside him and instinctively checked for a pulse, but could feel the pulse in his back where the seal was; making him jump back a little. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked back to see that it was only Kakashi:
"It's okay. He's fine. I'll take it from here."
"Sure." Gray said before moving to the other side of Sasuke's bed.
"Now; I need you to do something for me and for Sasuke after I get this scroll open alright?"
Gray nodded:
"What do you want me to do Kakashi?"
"You're an ice mage yes?"
He nodded again:
"Yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with anything."
"I need you to keep the seal from over heating while I perform this sealing jutsu. Can ya do that for me please?"
He nodded again, but stayed silent.
Kakashi smiled:
"Thank you. I'm sure Sasuke will be saying the same thing when I'm finished."
Gray returned the smile:
"Sure thing and I'll be sure to watch over him carefully so you don't have to worry about him while I'm here. Unless of course there is when the seal needs to be fixed, but other than that I've got everything under control."
"I'll hold you to that, but thanks." Kakashi said before opening the scroll.
Gray formed a cooling ice spell in his hands and put his hands over Sasuke; not touching him, but just looming over his back; occasionally blowing the cooling mist that came from his hand onto Sasuke's back for extra measures.
Kakashi finish resealing the Ten-Tails within Sasuke and stood up:
"Well I'm finished here. I'm glad you came to me at the first sight of anything unordinary. Thank you Gray."
"No problem."
"Ya wanna know something?"
"What?"
"Seen as how you helped with that I might teach you a thing or two about being a ninja; if you're interested that is."
Gray's eyes widened:
"Really?! You'd do that?"
"Sure. After all I pretty much owe ya one now."
"When can I start?"
"Tomorrow afternoon at the training ground; Sasuke knows where it is and he'll show ya, but I have to warn you: being a ninja isn't as easy as you think it is."
"I know."
"How?"
"Sasuke told me. We get a lot of chances to talk about those sorts of things."
"Ah I see. Well see ya later."
"See ya." Gray said before Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.
Gray looked over at Sasuke to see that he had turned over and was starting to wake up. He walked over to the gennin and sat beside the bed.
Sasuke's eyes slowly opened; as if he had been knocked unconscious, and his voice was groggy:
"Ugh...my head. Wha-where am I? Oh wait I'm still in bed...huh." He said scratching the back of his neck.
"Hey there."
The sound of Gray's whispery voice made Sasuke jump a little; making Gray chuckle a little bit:
"What? Are ya afraid of me now?" He asked jokingly.
"No. I just didn't expect to hear your voice so low like that." Sasuke teased back; making the ice mage raise an eye brow:
"Are you playing games with m head Sasuke?"
"Of course not."
"Oh changing the subject: guess what."
"You're a love stricken softy." Sasuke guess jokingly.
"No. Kakashi gonna teach some stuff on how to e a ninja."
"Oh. I never would've guessed that."
"Isn't that great though?"
"It's awesome. I never thought KAKASHI of all ninja would teach you that kinda stuff, but I guess I was wrong about him."
"Yeah. I was told to meet him tomorrow afternoon at the training grounds, and he said you knew where it was, but I have a slight feeling I've been there before."
"Yeah you have. I'll come with you anyway though." Sasuke said with a sheepish smile. He patted the spot next to him on the bed in a sense to tell Gray to sit next to him.
Gray stood up and sat next to Sasuke on his bed.
Sasuke wrapped his arms around Gray's neck; catching him off guard:
"Thank you." He whispered.
"For what? What did I do?" Gray whispered back.
"If it weren't for you going to get Kakashi I wouldn't be here. There are a lot of times where without you being there I wouldn't be here."
Gray felt his face get a little hot after he heard Sasuke whispering into his ear about how he's grateful to have him around:
"Aw don't sweat it Sasuke. I'm just being a good friend."
"Good friend? You've been acting more than just a good friend Gray."
"I have?"
"Yeah. You've acted as though you were someone I've known all my life, and yet I only met you a day and a half ago."
"Well I consider that as a good friend."
"Then what's an awesome friend in your eyes?"
"I don't know."
"Try listening to your gut."
"My gut?"
"Yeah. Or like you said: listen to your heart and think later."
"Heheh I did say that didn't I?"
Sasuke put his head under Gray's chin and smiled.
"Hey Sasuke?"
"Yeah?"
"You do still remember that I wasn't finished with what I started right?"
"Yeah."
"I think I'm gonna let it slide for now."
"Okay."
Gray's arms instinctively wrapped around Sasuke's waist and he felt a small smile creep onto his face as he felt Sasuke's raven locks under his chin, but he felt he should say something else that he should've said to Sasuke before he 'passed out':
"H-hey Sasuke can I tell you something."
"Sure Gray. What is it?"
Gray felt his voice grow fainter and fainter every moment he waited to say these words:
"I...I-uh...ahem...I really don't know how to say this...the right way that is."
Sasuke looked up at his stuttering friend with a warm smile to try to reassure him that he could say whatever was on his mind and not feel bad about talking about them.
Gray sighed:
"Okay...I really should've told you this earlier, but better late than never right? Anyways...I wanted to tell you that I...l-l-...aw shit..."
"What?"
"I can't say it."
"I'm not gonna think any different of you Gray."
"But..."
"Saying it will make you feel a whole lot better with getting it off your chest."
"Okay, okay."
"Just don't worry about what I'm going to think. Say what you need to say."
"Okay..." Gray sighed; trying to calm himself down a little:
"I really like you."
"As in like a friend or...?"
"No. I...I l-love...you..." Gray said; trying not to let his nerves get the best of him.
Sasuke felt his face turn a dark red:
"R-really?"
Gray nodded:
"Yeah."
Tears welled in the gennin's eyes, but he still had a smile on his face:
"I-I love you too G-Gray."
Gray held Sasuke close to him and never wanted to let go; tears welled in his eyes as well.
Sasuke could've sworn he was being watched, but he ignored it; he was with someone who loved him, and that's all that mattered at the moment.
Neither of them made any sort of sign that they wanted to ever let go and just stay that way forever.